EU and US Agree on Galileo

An anonymous reader writes "The EU and USA have reached an agreement over the Galileo satellite positioning system, ending several years of negotiations." We had some good Galileo information in a story last month.

Comments

Re:End of GPS lockout?

[Gothmolly]

The "lockout" is already ended. During the first Gulf War, there was such a shortage of military GPS units that soldiers brought their own, and the military bought piles of civilian ones. At the same time, they turned off the intentional perterbatio of the signal, so that all the GPSes would work with the same degree of accuracy.

Increase spatial resolution with dual systems?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can easily see products that incorporate both systems and pull coordinates from both at the same time - any GPS types here want to theorize on what hypothetical dual system devices can do for spatial accuracy in the field without having to do the whole fixed station - correct back at the lab stuff to get sub-meter resolutions?

Re:Why duplication?

[Clinoti]

Politically, the EU despite it's slow start and setbacks is stepping up in it's own right as blocks of countries merge to become a formidable competitor/ally/balance for the U.S.

Having them rely on an outside source for GPS, Military or other electronic systems places the disadvantage in their court. Also remember the havoc that went on in the EU when the US switched GPS channels for Iraq? Germany's reliance on the GPS system for their Mercedes cars were thrown off kilter for a bit.

Having read the article, I wonder what the 'open' system will be like? Competition is the friend of all technology, so hopefully we will benefit rather than have 1cm rfid's. :) We will see. -eol

Raise your hand if you'd subscribe!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, I can understand Europe not wanting to be at the mercy of the US's whims for something that can become very important. But this is going to be a subscription service, and I can't imagine too many people are going to be willing to pay for something they already get free. Sure, they may have a slightly better accuracy, but I do not see that GPS is bad enough to be worth paying for slightly better service.

aQazaQa

What the compromise means

[jsebrech]

Galileo used frequencies which were interleaved with the US military use of gps, meaning that the US couldn't jam galileo without jamming gps for their military at the same time. The US was adamant that this was unacceptable, that they wouldn't be able to disable galileo whenever they wanted, so the EU backed down, and promised to use frequencies which are more easily jammed.

Re:End of GPS lockout?

[Azghoul]

While I understand what you're trying to say, you're not entirely correct.

The "lockout" is known as selective availability (SA) and has been shut off since 1996 or so, not "at the same time" as the first Gulf War.

However, there is an extra band for military use only (someone else can get the exact details). There are also "survey grade" GPS devices that manage much greater accuracy than your $100 Garmin.

All GPSes don't work with the same degree of accuracy.

competitive??

[theguywhosaid]

"highly competitive satellite positioning market"

who else is in the market? dont you need at least two players actually in the market to call it a competitive one?

Re:Its about time

[Rei]

US warns against European Satellite System

While the squabbling may come down to technicalities, the core of the dispute always seems to come down to Europe not wanting to be dependant on the US (for good reason), and the US not wanting high-accuracy civilian GPS (especially at times when we plan to heavily degrade the signal, such as whenever we've picked our latest poor country to invade)